A Wet Walk at Gibside ....

Alice - sheltering in the woods- and not amused.

Floods run down the roads..

After a walk to the village and breakfast in Luis wine bar we were confident that the weather was ok and that a few drops of rain wouldn't put us off dog walking . We hadn't bargained for the fact that we always seem to have the opposite weather from Gibside .

I texted our friends who live in that direction to see if they wanted to jon us but they were "holiday shopping" ( lucky things- holiday , not the shopping! I'm not a fan of sandals and bikinis and so forth) .

As we pulled in to the car park at Gibside and noted the smaller favoured car park was closed I had an email from Chaela letting me know there were weather issues in their neck of the woods. Let's just say she didnt quite put it like that.

We wrapped ourselves up in what waterproof gear we had .
Hm . The greyhound no longer fits into her fancy Barbour type jacket so just has to get wet . Suffice to say she usually refuses rain anyway , digging her heels in at the door or if caught in a downpour at home racing back to the front door without so much as a by your leave .
Off we went .

It wasnt quite raining , and at that point I planned to take some pictures of the gorgeous allotments . Community gardens all beautifully laid out . It was not to be .

There was a craft market on , stalls under canvas and we hurried past as the rain started , intending to have a closer look on our return , assuming the shower would pass.
D is usually quite good on the weather forecasting front and muttered about north and south and this and that and as we hurtled along the drive under the trees I still had some faith that by the time we left the shelter of the trees all would be well  and the shower would have blown over . When he started asking me however , Me ? What do I know , if I could see which way the clouds were moving , and I realised that looking skywards was causing a veritable stream to gush down my front , I thought enough is enough . As we left the trees' shelter and onto the open road heading for the new Skyline Path which was our goal , we darted into the woods to take cover and the dog sat down firmly .
At this point as we stood peering out at the torrential rain coming down in straight sheets , it was clear we should turn back .

The picture from the car was one of several attempting to show the floods running down the roads . It didn't really work .